Nov 24, 2012

Thailand - Tensions flare as protesters urge Thai PM to quit

BANGKOK: Thai police on Saturday fired tear gas and detained dozens of
demonstrators as clashes erupted at the first major street protests against
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's government.

About 17,000 police were deployed
for the rally in Bangkok's historic district, which was organised by the
royalist group Pitak Siam.

"In the name of Pitak Siam
and its allies I promise that we will topple this government," the
movement's head, retired general Boonlert Kaewprasit, declared from the rally
stage.

The authorities expected tens of
thousands of people to attend the demo, which comes about two and a half years
after dozens of people died in a military crackdown on opposition protests in
the heart of the capital.

By early afternoon police
estimated that about 12,000 people had turned out.

Police said they fired tear gas
at a group of protesters who removed barbed wire and barriers blocking their
route in front of a UN building close to the main rally site.

"Tear gas was used in one
area because protesters did not comply with the rules," said national
police spokesman Major General Piya Uthayo.

About 100 protesters were
detained while knives and bullets were confiscated, he said.

Seventeen people, including seven
police officers, were treated for cuts and other injuries, officials said.

The authorities called in an
extra 5,700 police after the skirmishes, but said they would allow the rally to
go ahead at the Royal Plaza so long as the other protesters gathered peacefully.

The demonstrators, who included
supporters of the influential "Yellow Shirt" royalist movement,
called on Yingluck's government to stand down.

"I can't stand that they
disrespect the king. I want the government to quit," said 48-year-old
farmer Namsai Jantarat from the northern province of Chiang Mai.

Yingluck on Thursday voiced fears
the protesters aimed to use violence and to "overthrow an elected
government and democratic rule", in a televised address to the nation.

The government has invoked a
special security law, the Internal Security Act (ISA), in three districts of
the capital to cope with possible unrest.

"We will evaluate the
situation daily and if it escalates we are ready to invoke emergency rule, but
so far I think the ISA will be sufficient," Thai police chief General Adul
Sangsingkaew said on national television.

Thailand has been rocked by a
series of sometimes violent rival street protests in recent years, although an
uneasy calm had returned after national elections in 2011.

Two months of mass opposition
protests in 2010 by "Red Shirt" supporters of ousted premier Thaksin
Shinawatra sparked a military crackdown that left about 90 people dead and
nearly 1,900 wounded.

Thaksin's sister Yingluck is now
prime minister after his political allies won a landslide election victory last
year.

"This government ignores
widespread disrespect of the monarchy and even supports the perpetrators. It is
a puppet of Thaksin," Pitak Siam spokesman Vachara Riddhagni told AFP
ahead of the demo.

Observers say prosecutions for
insulting the monarchy have surged since royalist generals toppled Thaksin in a
coup in 2006 following a series of mass protests by the Yellow Shirts.

Many of those targeted with lese
majeste charges are linked to the Red Shirt movement, the rivals of the
Yellows.

- AFP/xq

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